
Qass_ 
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GQHfRIGKT Dipoair. 



A Child's Primer 
of Natural History 






A Child's Primer 
of Natural History 




y 



By Oliver Herford 

with Pictures by 
the Author 



Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1899 







ir 






^ )NC -OPY. 






Copyright, 1899, by 

Oliver Herford 

TWO COPIES RECEIVED. 









Contents 



Page 



A Seal 


• 3 


The Girafle 


• 7 


The Yak . . 


. 1 1 


A Whale . . 


• l 5 


The Leopard . 


*9 


The Sloth . . . 


2 3 


The Elephant . , 


27 


The Pig-Pen 


3 1 


Some Geese 


35 



Page 

The Ant . 39 

An Arctic Hare . 43 
The Wolf ... 47 
An Ostrich . .51 

The Hippopotamus 55 
The Fly ... 59 
The Mongoos . .63 
The Platypus . . 67 
The Chimpanzee . 71 



Contents — Continued 



A Mole . . . 


Page 

• 75 


The Cat . 


Page 

• 87 


The Rhinoceros 


• 79 


The Dog 


• 9 1 


A Penguin . 


• 83 


A Chameleon 


• 95 



A Seal, 




A Seal. 

See, chil-dren, the Fur-bear-ing Seal; 
Ob-serve his mis-di-rect-ed zeal: 
He dines with most ab-ste-mi-ous care 
On Fish, Ice Water and Fresh Air 
A-void-ing cond-i-ments or spice, 
For fear his fur should not be nice 
And fine and smooth and soft and meet 
For Broad-way or for Re-gent Street 
And yet some-how I of-ten feel 
(Though for the kind Fur-bear-ing Seal 
I har-bor a Re-spect Pro-found) 
He runs Fur-bear-ance in the ground. 



The Giraffe. 



^n7 ; 




The Giraffe. 

See the Gi-raffe; he is so tall 
There is not room to get him all 
U-pon the page. His head is high-er— 
The pic-ture proves it— than the Spire. 
That 's why the na-tives, when they race 
To catch him, call it stee-ple-chase. 
His chief de-light it is to set 
A good example: shine or wet 
He rises ere the break of day, 
And starts his break-fast right away. 
His food has such a way to go,— 
His throat 's so very long,— and so 

An early 



An early break-fast he must munch 
To eet it down ere time for lunch. 




The Yak. 



The Yak. 

This is the Yak, so neg-li-gee: 

His coif-fure 's like a stack of hay ; 

He lives so far from Anv-where, 

I fear the Yak neg-lects his hair, 

And thinks, since there is none to see, 

What mat-ter how un-kempt he be. 

How would he feel if he but knew 

That in this Pic-ture-book I drew 

His Phys-i-og-no-my un-shorn, 

For chil-dren to de-ride and scorn? 




11 



A Whale. 




A Whale. 

The con-sci-en-tious art-ist tries 

On-ly to draw what meets his eyes. 

This is the Whale; he seems to be 

A spout of wa-ter in the sea. 

Now, Hux-ley from one bone could make 

An un-known beast; so if I take 

This spout of wa-ter, and from thence 

Con-struct a Whale by in-fer-ence, 

A Whale, I ven-ture to as-sert, 

Must be an an-i-mat-ed squirt! 

Thus, chil-dren, we the truth may sift 

By use of Log-ic's Price-less Gift. 




15 




The Leopard. 



The Leopard. 

This is the Le-o-pard, my child; 
His tem-per 's any-thing but mild. 
The Le-o-pard can 't change his spots, 
And that— so say the Hot-ten-tots— 
Is why he is so wild. 
Year in, year out, he may not change, 
No mat-ter how the wea-ther range, 
From cold to hot. No won-der, child, 
We hear the Le-o-pard is wild. 



The Sloth 




The Sloth. 

The Sloth en-joys a life of Ease; 
He hangs in-vert-ed from the trees, 

And views life up-side down. 
If you, my child, are noth-ing loath 
To live in In-dol-ence and Sloth, 

Un-heed-ing the World's frown, 
You, too, un-vexed by Toil and Strife, 
May take a hu-mor-ous view of life. 




23 



The Elephant. 



^ 




The Elephant. 

This is the El-e-phant, who lives 

With but one aim— to please. 

His i-vo-ry tusk he free-ly gives 

To make pi-a-no keys. 

One grief he has— how-e'er he tries, 

He nev-er can for-get 

That one of his e-nor-mous size 

Can't be a house-hold pet. 

Then does he to his grief give way, 

Or sink 'neath sor-row's ban? 

Oh, no; in-stead he spends each day 

Con-tri-ving some un-sel-fish way 

To be of use to Man. 




27 



The Pig-Pen. 




The Pig-Pen. 

Oh, turn not from the hum-ble Pig, 

My child, or think him in-fra dig. 

We oft hear lit-er-a-ry men 

Boast of the in-flu-ence of the Pen ; 

Yet when we read in His-to-ry's Page 

Of Hu-man Pigs in ev-er-y age, 

From Croe-sus to the pres-ent day, 

Is it, my child, so hard to say 

(De-spite the Scribes' vain-glo-ri-ous boast) 

What Pen has in-Hu-enced Man the most? 




's-~g2>? 



Some Geese. 




Some Geese, 

Ev-er-y child who has the use 
Of his sen-ses knows a goose. 
See them un-der-neath the tree 
Gath-er round the goose-girl's knee, 
While she reads them by the hour 
From the works of Scho-pen-hau-er. 
How pa-tient-ly the geese at-tend! 
But do they re-al-ly com-pre-hend 
What Scho-pen-hau-er 's driv-ing at? 
Oh, not at all; but what of that? 
Nei-ther do I; nei-ther does she; 
And, for that mat-ter, nor does he. 




35 



The Ant. 




The Ant. 

My child, ob-serve the use-ful Ant, 

How hard she works each day. 

She works as hard as ad-a-mant 

(That 's very hard, they say). 

She has no time to gal-li-vant; 

She has no time to play. 

Let Fido chase his tail all day; 

Let Kitty play at tag: 

She has no time to throw a-way, 

She has no tail to wag. 

She scurries round from morn till night; 
She ne-ver, ne-ver sleeps; 

She seiz-es 




39 



She seiz-es ev-ery-thing in sight, 

And drags it home with all her might, 

And all she takes she keeps. 



An Arctic Hare. 




An Arctic Hare. 

An Arc-tic Hare we now be-hold. 

The hair, you will ob-serve, is white; 
But if you think the Hare is old, 

You will be ver-y tar from right. 
The Hare is young, and yet the hair 

Grew white in but a sin-de nieht. 
Why, then it must have been a scare 

That turned this Hare. No; 't was not fright 
(Al-though such cases are well known); 

1 tear that once a-gain you Ye wrong. 
Know then, that in the Arc-tic Zone 

A sin-gle night is six months lono-. 




43 



The Wolf. 




The Wolf. 

Oh, yes, the Wolf is bad, it 's true; 
But how with-out him could we do? 
If there were not a wolf, what good 
Would be the tale of Rid-ing-hood? 
The Lit-tle Child from sin will fly 
When told the wick-ed Wolf is nigh; 
And when, ar-rived at Man's es-tate, 
He hears the Wolf out-side his gate, 
He knows it 's time to put a-way 
I-dle fri-vol-i-ty and play. 
That 's how (but do not men-tion it) 
This prim-er hap-pened to be writ. 




47 



An Ostrich. 




An Ostrich. 

This is an Os-trich. See him stand: 

His head is bur-ied in the sand. 

It is not that he seeks for food, 

Nor is he shy, nor is he rude; 

But he is sen-si-tive, and shrinks 

And hides his head when-e'er he thinks 

How, on the Gains-bor-ough hat some day 

Of some fine la-dy at the play, 

His fea-thers may ob-struct the view 

Of all the stage from me or you. 




51 



The Hippopotamus. 




The Hippopotamus. 

"Oh, say, what is this fearful, wild 

In-cor-ri-gible cuss?" 

"This crea-ture (don't say 'cuss,' my child; 

'T is slang)— this crea-ture fierce is styled 

The Hip-po-pot-am-us. 

His curious name de-rives its source 

From two Greek words: hippos— a horse, 

Potamos — river. See ? 

The river 's plain e-nough, of course; 

But why they called that thing a horse ^ 

That 's what is Greek to me." 



The Fly. 




The Fly. 



Ob-serve, my child, the House-hold Fly, 

With his ex-traor-di-na-ry eye: 

What-ev-er thing he may be-hold 

Is mul-ti-plied a thou-sand-fold. 

JVe do not need a com-plex eye 

When we ob-serve the Household Fly: 

He is so vol-a-tile that he 

In ev-er-y place at once can be; 

He is the buzz-ing in-car-na-tion 

Of an-i-mate mul-ti-pli-ca-tion. 

Ah! chil-dren, who can tell the Why 

And Where-fore of the House-hold Fly? 




59 



The Mongoos. 




The Mongoos. 

This, Chil-dren, is the famed Mon-goos. 
He has an ap-pe-tite ab-struse; 
Strange to re-late, this crea-ture takes 
A cu-ri-ous joy in eat-ing snakes- 
All kinds, though, it must be con-fessed, 
He likes the poi-son-ous ones the best. 
From him we learn how ve-ry small 
A thing can bring a-bout a Fall. 
Oh, Mon-goos, where were you that day 
When Mis-tress Eve was led a-stray? 
If you 'd but seen the ser-pent first, 

Our Parents would not have been cursed, 

And so 



BP^4^ 




63 



And so there would be no ex-cuse 
For Mil-ton, but for you— Mon-goos! 



The Platypus. 




The Platypus. 

My child, the Duck-billed Plat-y-pus 

A sad ex-am-ple sets for us : 

From him we learn how In-de-ci-sion 

Of char-ac-ter pro-vokes De-ri-sion. 

This vac-il-lat-ing Thing, you see, 

Could not de-cide which he would be, 

Fish, Flesh, or Fowl, and chose all three. 
The sci-en-tists were sore-ly vexed 

To clas-si-fy him; so per-plexed 

Their brains that they, with Rage at bay, 

Called him a hor-rid name one day, — 

A name that baf-fles, frights, and shocks us, — 

Or-ni-tho-rhyn-chus Par-a-dox-us. 



The Chimpanzee. 




The Chimpanzee. 

Chil-dren, be-hold the Chim-pan-zee: 
He sits on the an-ces-tral tree 
From which we sprang in ag-es gone. 
I 'm glad we sprang: had we held on, 
We might, for aught that I can say, 
Be hor-rid Chim-pan-zees to-day. 



A Mole. 




A Mole. 

See, chil-dren, the mis-guid-ed Mole. 
He lives down in a deep, dark hole; 
Sweet-ness, and Light, and good Fresh Air 
Are things for which he does not care. 
He has not e-ven that make-shift 
Of fee-ble minds — the so-cial gift. 
But say not that he has no soul, 
Lest hap-ly we mis-judge the Mole ; 
Nay, if we mea-sure him by Men, 
No doubt he sits in his dark den 
In-struct-ing oth-ers blind as he 
Ex-act-ly how the world should be. 



The Rhinoceros. 




The Rhinoceros. 

So this is the Rhi-no-ce-ros ! 
I won-der why he looks so cross. 
Per-haps he is an-noyed a bit 
Be-cause his cloth-ing does not fit. 
(They say he got it read-y made!) 

It is not that, I am a-fraid. 

He looks so cross be-cause I drew 

Him with one horn in-stead of two. 



Well, since he cares so much for style, 
Let 's give him two and see him smile. 



A Penguin. 




A Penguin. 



The Pen-guin sits up-on the shore 
And loves the lit-tle fish to bore; 
He has one en-er-vat-ing joke 
That would a very Saint pro-voke: 
"The /V/z-guin 's might-i-er than the Sword-fish" 
He tells this dai-ly to the bored fish, 
Un-til they are so weak, they float 
With-out re-sis-tance down his throat. 



The Cat. 




The Cat. 

Ob-serve the Cat up-on this page. 
Phil-os-o-phers in ev-er-y age, 
The ver-y wis-est of the wise, 
Have tried her mind to an-a-lyze 
In vain, for noth-ing can they learn. 
She baf-fles them at ev-er-y turn 
Like Mis-ter Ham-let in the play. 
She leads their rea-son-ing a-stray; 
She feigns an in-ter-est in string 
Or yarn or any roll-ing thing. 
Un-like the Dog, she does not care 
With com-mon Man her thoughts to share. 

She teach-es 




87 



She teach-es us that in life's walk 
'T is bet-ter to let oth-ers talk, 
And lis-ten while they say in-stead 
The fool-ish things we might have said. 




The Dog. 




The Dog. 

Here is the Dog. Since time be-gan, 
The Dog has been the friend of Man, 
The Dog loves Man be-cause he shears 
His coat and clips his tail and ears. 
Man loves the Dog be-cause he '11 stay 
And lis-ten to his talk all day, 
And wag his tail and show de-light 
At all his jokes, how-ev-er trite. 
His bark is far worse than his bite, 
So peo-ple say. They may be right; 
Yet if to make a choice I had, 
I 'd choose his bark, how-ev-er bad. 




91 



A Chameleon. 




A Chameleon. 

A use-ful les-son you may con. 
My Child, from the Cha-me-le-on : 
He has the gift, ex-treme-ly rare 
In an-i-mals, of sav-oir-faire. 
And if the se-cret you would guess 
Of the Cha-me-le-on's suc-cess, 
A-dapt your-self with great-est care 
To your sur-round-ings ev-er-y-where ; 
And then, un-less your sex pre- vent, 
Some day you may be Pres-i-dent. 




95 






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